Why should it? It appears Israel and the US have a covert strategy that is building obstacles for Iran on several fronts of its nuclear program. Top Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in the last few years. A virus set back the complex computer networks necessary for a nuclear program.

Now, more and more people are missile factory last Saturday was not, as the government claims, an accident but may have been the work of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad. Even without Israeli involvement, the death of Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the leader of Iran’s missile programs and favorite of the Ayatollah Khamenei, is in Israel’s interests. Mastering the technology needed to build a nuclear bomb is one part of a weapons program. that can carry a nuclear device is the other.

“Something strange is happening in Israel,” former IDF General Israela Oren told 300-plus guests attending a Jstreet luncheon yesterday. She referred to the open discussion within Israeli media about PM Netanyahu’s efforts to gain support from his cabinet for a bombing raid on Iranian nuclear facilities. Usually, such talk is kept secret and discouraged by the government, so the recent speculative chatting is seen by many Israelis as a smoke-screen shifting focus away from covert actions or else as a hawkish ploy to drive the US and Europe into tougher sanctions against Iran. Most of the Israeli military and intelligence networks seem opposed to a military strike against Iran.